Spain are world champions again. Sixteen years on from their first, Luis de la Fuente's side beat Argentina 1-0 after extra time at MetLife Stadium, and it was Ferran Torres, of all people, who settled it. The finish arrived in the 106th minute. By then the result had felt inevitable for the best part of an hour.
This was a coronation more than a contest. Argentina came in as holders and left without a single shot on target, per ESPN's match data. Spain had 65% of the ball, 12 efforts on target to nil, and an expected goals count of 1.94 against 0.20. The scoreline flattered the losers.
The double, and a return to the summit
De la Fuente now holds a set most managers never touch. Euro 2024, then the World Cup, one after the other. Spain had not been world champions since 2010, when a golden generation squeezed out a single goal in Johannesburg. This side did it with more menace and a great deal more football.
They were the tournament's outstanding team and rarely looked otherwise. Spain had given little away all the way through, and Argentina found out why. France had gone out in the semi-finals, and Argentina, for all their pedigree, were simply worn down across 120 minutes here.
Yamal, a champion at 19
At the heart of it stood Lamine Yamal. Nineteen years old, a world champion, one of the youngest of the modern era. He was Spain's spark all night, drifting infield, pulling defenders out of shape, setting a problem Argentina never solved.
Behind him, Rodri did the quiet work: shielding, recycling, dictating the tempo Spain wanted. Spain completed 762 passes at 89% accuracy to Argentina's 358. That is not luck. That is control. Both Yamal and Rodri belong in the Golden Ball conversation, though the award had not been confirmed at the final whistle.
Ferran Torres, the unlikely hero
Then the man who finished it. Ferran Torres has spent much of his Spain career in and out of the side, more useful than fashionable. Here he was in the right place at the right time. Nico Williams, a menace down the left all evening, hung a header back across the six-yard box, and Torres met it at the near post, past Emiliano Martinez.
Martinez deserves a word. Argentina's keeper made 11 saves and kept the final goalless deep into extra time; without him it would have been a rout. The one shot he could not reach was the one that mattered.
Argentina's night frayed right at the end, reduced to ten men by a red card in the closing seconds of extra time, but the game had long since gone.
Messi denied, Mbappe crowned
For Argentina, and for Lionel Messi at 39, it was a bruising way to finish. The holders never got going, and Messi, starved of the ball, could not force the send-off he wanted.
The Golden Boot went to Kylian Mbappe, who claimed it with 10 goals despite France's exit in the semi-finals. Messi ended on eight, and missed out.
Spain, meanwhile, have a squad built to stay. Yamal is 19. Torres and Williams are in their prime. De la Fuente holds both trophies that matter and no obvious reason to change a thing. The rest of the world now has four years to find a way to stop them. The trophy goes home to Spain, and on this evidence the reign may not be a short one.
Sources
- ESPN
- FIFA
- Yahoo Sports
- Al Jazeera
- Cover photo: Bryan Berlin / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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